Drowning Souls
by almanera
Summary: Darkness lurking in those eyes, darkness in disguise. Come, be friend—together we'll ascend. This is a story of a turbulent journey that was friendship of Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. A friendship that was perfect until ulterior motives behind it began to manifest themselves.


_Have you ever experienced the sensation of falling?_

_I have._

_And I will tell you what it's like._

_There is no up or down, no walls or sides or ceilings, just the sensation of cold and darkness everywhere. You are so scared that you could scream. But when you open your mouth, nothing happens. You fall seemingly forever and you don't even know if it's falling._

_It's more like drowning._

_You kick with your feet to stay abreast, you push the air, but the water is still so heavy that it simply drags you down. The water muffles your ears. You can feel it, icy on your face. _

_Why does it have to be so cold?_

_Cold?_

_No, it's not cold. It's hot._

_Hot like a fiery kiss._

_Passionate and longing, yet so horribly distant and emotionless._

_I contradict myself I know, but you can't really blame me for it._

_At least not now._

_First just listen to my story._

xxx

June 13th, 1899

It was fairly warm outside. There was a slight wind, uncommonly cold for June, but otherwise it was alright.

Except Albus couldn't really appreciate it.

His gaze was glued to the ground.

There used to be a flowerbed here—there still was, but nothing had grown this year.

The winter had been mild, but in March there had been a series of unexpected blizzards, which had frozen the crops that had already started growing.

The plants were dead now.

Just like Kendra Dumbledore.

Their mother.

When he first heard the news he had refused to believe it.

It was horribly selfish, but he couldn't help but thinking that it was horribly unfair that it had to happen _now_. Now, that he and Doge had finally set out to travel.

_Why?_

Well, he knew 'why'—because life was unfair, that's why.

Merlin, how he hated them!

Those hypocrites who had come to his Mother's funeral—the very same people that had always gossiped and spread nasty rumours about Kendra Dumbledore—but no, the moment she died, they were suddenly her closest companions.

Albus wanted to scream in frustration—or curse someone—or both.

Aberforth was nowhere to be seen. It was better like that or else Albus _would_ have cursed someone—his little brother—because the latter never lost an opportunity to remind Albus that all bad things that had ever happened were somehow his fault — because he, Albus, was never around, always busy with his studies, never paying attention to the rest of the family…

As far as Aberforth was concerned it was always "Albus, Albus, Albus…"

It was simply too much.

It was bad enough that he had endure that pesky woman Bathilda Bagshot who lived in a house just across theirs.

The biggest gossiper of them all.

She had even had the nerve to actually _spy _on them.

This was how she had learned about Ariana.

It wasn't that Madam Bagshot was all that bad; she had been the one to send his paper to the scholarly journal _'Transfiguration Today'_ and she had always encouraged him to develop his talents…it was just—at this precise moment she was talking to someone.

Someone foreign looking.

Two boys.

Albus could clearly see one of them—the shorter one.

The boy was averagely built, had sandy blond hair, and light complexion. He was dressed in a Muggle sailor suit. Quite honestly there was nothing special about him.

For a moment Albus was quite puzzled at his own initial reaction to this individual, but then, when he looked closely, he understood.

The way the foreign boy was dressed was simply _impeccable_. Had Albus seen him somewhere else, he would have been sure that the boy was a Muggle.

His sailor suit was decorated with traditional stripes typical of those worn by boys from Imperial Germany—even his hair was cropped to match the style.

Albus had learned a lot about Muggle history to recognize these things. He and Doge had always thought it was best not to take chances with involuntarily exposing the wizarding world, even if Albus had always secretly wished to dress in outrageous colours of purple and sparkling yellow and becharm his outfit to emit a red glow just to annoy people.

Nevertheless it was because of their trip that he and Doge had studied everything they could about Muggles and their mannerisms.

And this boy—whoever he was—seemed to be quite knowledgeable too.

And what was he doing here in the first place?

Albus was sure that he had never seen him before or he would have remembered.

Curiosity won over; carefully Albus moved closer, trying to eavesdrop on the conversation.

They weren't speaking English, but from his new position Albus could clearly see that the foreign boy whom he had spotted earlier was clearly feeling nervous and out of place.

He was probably uncomfortable with having walked in on someone's funeral—and very rightly so.

Nobody was paying him any attention though.

Madam Bagshot was speaking to the other boy.

The other one was taller and athletically built. He too was blond, but Albus couldn't see his face, he could only sense that the conversation wasn't a pleasant one.

Madam Bagshot looked…cautious…and somehow also…_disappointed_…was it?

At the same time the taller boy's shoulders seemed somehow tense.

Finally, the group seemed to have reached some kind of agreement, for Madam Bagshot sighed and nodded while the taller boy motioned the shorter one to come closer.

There was a brief introduction.

Madam Bagshot obviously hadn't known the shorter one before, but she seemed to be familiar with the taller one.

Interesting.

Albus felt compelled to follow them. Funeral be damned.

He quietly creeped along the hedge, keeping the distance, careful not to be seen.

At some point the taller boy turned around as if sensing that they were being followed..

It was then that Albus had first seen him—Gellert Grindelwald.

* * *

**AN**: This story has been uploaded before, but it was deleted. Now I thought that I'd be writing it after all. So, here it is. Welcome to the turbulent journey of Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. I hope you like it.

It's 1899. Just a few months ago a German chemist Felix Hoffmann patented aspirin. Albus Dumbledore was meanwhile a teenager who had just lost his mother and not an old wise man we are so used to seeing.


End file.
